A new method at studying bird species in the world revealed that the number could be as much as 18,000 distinct species.
In most lists used by bird watchers and ornithologists, bird species are reported to be around 9,000 to 10,000. However, these numbers are based on the biological species concept.
According to Dr. George Barrowclough, an associate curator in the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History, this concept is an outdated point of view is rarely used in taxonomy outside of birds.
In a study conducted by Dr. Barrowclough along with his co-authors, they studied 200 bird species through a morphology concept. This is based on studying physical traits like color and plumage pattern.
This method can be used to highlight birds with separate evolutionary histories. The study turned up on average nearly two different species for each of the 200 birds as reported in Sci-News.
The discovery of the new species is important. Before we can start to conserve species, we must first identify them. In the report published by the researchers, they stated the importance of this as most legislations on conservation have codified species, subspecies and distinct population segments.
In the journal How Many Kinds Of Birds Are There And Why Does It Matter? Dr. Barrowclough and his colleagues have highlighted the importance of bird species identification.
Identifying bird species and their endemic habitat would hasten conservation efforts and make sure that there is no specie of bird being overlooked. New species that have previously not been identified could possibly vanish without us knowing that these bird species ever existed.
The new study will be of significant importance as this will serve as basic units of analysis and will serve as a field guide to biogeographers and ecologists in their future studies. With improved estimates, future studies will be more accurate in terms of bird species identification.
